Personal hotspots

Computers & Tech
1

Today, I’ve discovered that using my mobile as a personal hotspot is **faster than the coal powered broadband that I pay £18.37/month for.

**at least it is today, time will tell if it continues that way.

If it continues to perform this way I might as well pay an extra £7/month for unlimited data and dump Shetland Broadband.

I’m not going to lie, it’s not lightning quick, but it’s certainly a step up from what I’m used to.

I guess the acid test will be Thursday night! You can all take the piss when I still drop out every 30 seconds :grinning:

Are there any drawbacks to this that I should know about?

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2

It’ll run your phone battery down very quickly. But seeing as you’re at home with a psu that won’t be an issue

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3

Might want to check there isn’t any reasonable use policies on the unlimited tariff. Sometimes its not as unlimited as you might expect. During bad weather do you find your fixed line broadband is more susceptible to outages or is the 4g more so.

The other consideration is some mobiles can get quiet warm when running as a hotspot for long periods of time and you will need to keep it on charge most of the time.

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4

My friend does this when he is at his house in Italy. Very fast, and has no trouble with data, as his wife often does work, away from home.
He bought a little repeater, so they can hook up wirelessly with their tablets.

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5

We live off 4G, as we don’t actually have a landline. The biggest issue to check on is data caps, although as you don’t have two kids obsessed with watching YouTube, this may not be such an issue for you.

You can also get 4G routers if you don’t want to be solely dependent on your phone.

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6

Don’t talk to me about hotspots :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Due to no broadband until a hoist arrives for FTTP tomorrow I am trying to use my iphone12

Lord knows why but my sky box and ps5 seem to intermittently see the device. One minute they do… next it’s like it doesn’t exist. Driving me mad.

7

That really is ‘first world problems’ :rofl:

8

Why is it that one minute my phone is visible and connects.
Ten minutes later it’s impossible to find.
It’s internet speed is over 100 so there should be no reason it won’t work.

9

I use between 40gb and 60gb per month so I don’t think I’ll be knocking on the door of unreasonable usage.

I can leave the mobile on charge if the battery is running down quickly. Alternatively, I also have a 26800mAh Portable Charger which should keep it going for a while!

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10

This might be worth serious consideration.

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11

If Fetlar is covered by Vodafone they have several options

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12

Vodafone is the only provider worth having here. I don’t know anyone on the Island that uses any other supplier.

At the moment, I’m happy to use my iPhone as it is certainly pissing all over the microwave broadband that I’m used to.

13

If you have deep pockets there is also Starlink if you want to help Elon buy more drugs.

14

I’ve already explored that avenue and I have said before, I would pay £89/mth in a heartbeat for fast broadband. Elon can spend it on coke and hookers AFAIC

Unfortunately, they don’t cover Shetland.

Yet.

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15

4G router with external antenna?

16

You could get something like this

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XC16QC1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glc_fabc_TC2DM3FGMSCAE3JW31Q7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

But make sure that your phone contact explicitly includes tethering, or it won’t work.

17

All of these things look fine, but they all require another data SIM which will be another monthly subscription.

I assume they will be only as fast as the signal allows, so I’m struggling to see the advantage over using my phone.

Or am I missing something?

18

I used mine for quite a while. Playing PS4 online over it also. Was alright. People said it would overheat my phone, nope. Battery does go down quick, as said.

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19

They should give you better reception, hence faster speeds. But I’d try your mobile first.

20

Using the hotspot via my phone atm. Just been watching live sport on Sky Go on the laptop with no dropouts/freezing etc.

Looks promising tbh

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